Digging beyond the census entries

About Me

Bringing the past into focus, bit by bit.

Ancestral Archaeologist (Liz Haigney Lynch, a k a scribbler714): Based in northern New Jersey, the Archaeologist spent her formative years in the Garden State before heading to Indiana University for a degree in journalism and German. She then bounced around the country being a copy editor and writer at a number of fine newspapers, including Greenwich Time, the Miami Herald, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Chicago Sun-Times.

A while back the Archaeologist came home to New Jersey, where she has been a freelance writer/editor and, increasingly, obsessed with tombstones, census entries and the proceedings of obscure 19th-century state agencies. She is tons of fun at parties.

The blog is where the Archaeologist expounds upon genealogy and related family-history topics like old recipes, newspaper clippings, fuzzy memories, photographs and pets. Yes, her definition of “related” is a broad one.

Contact:

Liz Haigney Lynch/Ancestral Archaeology • haigney.search@gmail.com

Need research in (or near) Essex County, N.J., just outside Manhattan? Give us a shout.

Who is the lady at the top of the page? She is Maria Pauliana Forster, one of the Archaeologist’s great-aunts. Maria Pauliana was a teenager when this photograph was taken around 1920. Not long afterward, she became a nun in a nursing order, where she spent the rest of her life. As a very old lady, she was still helping to care for patients in a nursing home just outside Munich.

Hey liz, you’re on jeopardy right now… genealogist caught my eye … me too ! The Quaker (Society of Friends), my Mothers (Rockhill’s -1400’s) side of the Family came in with William Penn’s ‘ boatloads’ and settled the Burlington NJ area(s) 1680’s… oh well, long short, I was kicking around the idea of Geno DNA but (fiscally prudent) am suspicious that the results are nothing more than a map of geographical beginnings (duh!) and not actually a connection to my pesky 3rd Great Grand Parents’ Parental beginnings (envision a car being driven by a pecan) – names, places and faces – just the facts …. ok, that was fun, hope you enjoyed it as much as me 🙂 – btw, you’re leading Jeopardy right now….

Hi, Scott. Thanks for watching the show. It was a great game. Re DNA: I agree it is expensive for many. But there are a lot of promising signs that DNA plus strong paper-trail research can team up to solve tricky problems. I think the key is being able to compare results with other people doing solid research AND the DNA testing. One without the other won’t work. Just a thought.